Series of Workshops for the Cultural Forum Members “Images and Art Practices in the Public Space”.

The Forum for Cultural Expression’s activities at Tishreen Association have culminated over the past two weeks with a series of valuable and exciting workshops. Under the title “Images and Art Practices in the Public Space”, Raouf Haj Yahya, curator of the exhibition (scheduled for early 2020), presented a series of workshops on artistic practices that take place in the public space in an attempt to engage with the social and political reality. The workshops studied the development of conceptual art in the historical context of the western modernism, namely they discussed artistic practices that are engaged in institutional criticism and in re-evaluating the relationship between art and its location. This included revision of the relationship between artwork and the social sphere outside modern gallery or museum walls. 

The workshops presented important artworks that were brought out to the public space throughout the world, while shows examples of artworks in the Palestinian context that were carried out or dealt with the form and concept of the public space, such as those of Mona Hatoum and Khalil Rabah.

Reem AbdelKader and Mona Haj Yahya, from the architecture department at ‘Bezalel’ College, also presented their research projects on the architectural aspects of the city of Taybeh. Reem AbdelKader presented her project entitled “Rural Leather, Urban Masks”, where she disclosed her critiques of the standards under which the city’s master plans were prepared, with the region’s cultural specificity and the local population’s living conditions were absent from considerations. She then continued to propose an alternative model by which to complete the natural and organic development of the city.
Mona Haj Yahya presented her project, focusing on Taybeh’s industrial area, entitled “Dynamic Vacuums”, which proposes modern solutions for the area, such as the establishment of dynamic facilities that are responsive to the periodic variables and the different needs of the industrial workshops.

The group also toured the old town of Taybeh, concluding its tour in ‘Al-Amri’ where they hosted by Mr. Mohammed Jbara, who explained in depth about the area’s restoration. Mr. Jbara showed how restoration can help integrate historical parts of the city within the social public space and discussed the attempts to convert some buildings into a municipal museum to showcase the history of the city.
The aforementioned activities are part of the enrichment and preparatory activities toward an art exhibition that will be organized by the Forum for Cultural Expression, with the support of AL-Qattan Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and the Swiss Embassy.